“I guess.” I shrugged, not letting on to how much I actually adored children.
“Do you want children?” she asked, pale fingers stroking her lower stomach while she spoke. I tracked the movement, realization dawning, before I answered.
“Eventually, one day. Not right now, obviously. But . . . it would be nice, yes.”
“Your opinion changed since Isrun,” she noted, and I blinked rapidly in shock. Asha chuckled but shook her head at my expression.
“Ben and I . . . there are no secrets between us, Rune Master. What he knows, I know, and vice versa. You were—are—an important part of Ben’s life. Kids were always in his future, though not in yours.” There was no animosity in her voice, just an open curiosity that instantly relaxed my hackles.
“Things change,” I said simply, and Asha sighed in response.
“Indeed, they do,” she mused quietly, hand still softly stroking her belly.
“Anything you care to share?” I asked with a pointed nod at her hand. Asha flushed scarlet before laughinglightly.
“Should have known I couldn’t conceal anything from you,” she muttered with a shake of her head, copper hair dancing around her face.
“Wasn’t hard to figure out, Asha. What with the talk of children and you sitting there practically glowing while stroking your stomach.”
Asha laughed again, her blue eyes light and dancing with pure happiness.
“Is it bad that I’m so happy when the world is collapsing around us? That I’m excited to bring this one into the world despite the fact that others are being so brutally taken from it? That I’m celebrating while others are mourning the loss of their loved ones tonight?”
I sat quietly for a moment, letting her words hang between us as I ate another slice of cheese and meat.
“No,” I eventually said with a shake of my head. My hair had come loose from its confines at some point, and I quickly tied it back into a bun while I spoke. “No, it’s not. That’s just life, Asha. There’s beauty in destruction, hope in despair, love in loss. Just because that mother we just saw lost her children doesn’t mean that you need to dampen your happiness. Life happens, death happens. We can’t have one without the other, and it’s okay to celebrate while others mourn.”
Asha’s smile returned in full force, so bright it almost lit the dark room.
“Thank you, Fay,” she said sincerely. I waved her away, cheeks hot from the attention. “If you’re . . . willing, I’d like you to help me deliver.”
I choked on the water I’d just sipped, sitting forward as I roughly hacked. Asha’s small hand beat against my back, but stopped when a larger, much more masculine palm joined.
“Trying to kill my Bonded, Asha?” a dry, unamused voice intoned. Snot ran from my nose, and my eyes leaked tears as I desperately tried to breathe normally once more.
“No, General,” Asha sighed, and I could practically hear the roll of her eyes. “I simply asked her to deliver Ben’s and my baby. Seemed she wasn’t quite expecting that question.”
Rohak’s palm paused its soothing ministrations, simply resting on my back, and I bit back the building request to have him continue stroking. The heat from his hand bled through my tunic, warming the skin below, and it was all I could do not to groan at the sensation.
“Congratulations,” Rohak said, a bit of excitement bleeding through. I felt down the Bond, surprised to find it open once more. His sincerity was overwhelming—as was his own desire for children.
My face felt hot as I retreated down the Bond, back into the safety of my own mind, which I slammed shut nearly immediately.
Rohak audibly grunted from the force, and I winced in response.
“Yes, congratulations,” I rasped, wiping the tears from my face as I drank once more. “And I’d be happy to deliver your baby.”
Asha’s smile reached her twinkling eyes, and she squeezed my hand in thanks. “I’ll give you two a minute?” she said, rising carefully and dusting the back of her pants before exiting the healing room, closing the door behind her.
We were encased in near darkness, the few Mage Orbs attached to the walls waxing and waning as the night progressed. The silence hanging between us was oppressive, and I tapped my fingers together in an effort to relieve the building tension.
Rohak removed his hand from my back, and I instantly ached at the loss of contact. A whine built in my throat that I tamped down enough that, when it finally emerged from between clenched lips, it only sounded like a “mmph.”
My Bonded chuckled deeply—the sound igniting a flame deep in my core—before sitting heavily in Asha’s vacated chair. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a large book clutched in his hands. Instantly, it stole my focus, dispelling all other previous thoughts and desires.
“Here,” he said with a sigh and little fanfare, dropping the book into my waiting lap. It was heavy, much weightier than I expected, and thrummed with a low undercurrent of energy—energy that was vaguely familiar.
“What is it?” I asked, thumbing through the blank pages. “Where did you find it?”
